In Quest of the Sun – Alain Gerbault (1937)

S$52.00

In Quest of the Sun – Alain Gerbault (1937)

S$52.00

Title: In Quest of the Sun

Author: Alain Gerbault

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937. 6th edition.

Condition: Hardcover, with dust jacket. Good. Some wear to dust jacket, spine leaving. Inscription to ffep, along with a small newspaper cutout glued to it, announcing the author’s death in Portuguese Timor in 1941. Sparse underlining in pencil, otherwise text is clean. 319pp., app 7″ by 4″.

SKU: gerbault-sun Categories: ,

Alain Gerbault’s journal of his the second part of his journey around the world on the Firecrest, a single-handed racing sailing boat. During this part of the journey he travels from New York around the world, passing through Bermuda, the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, the Malay Archipelago, the Indian Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope.

More details of his journey below, taken from Wikipedia:

In September, 1923, Gerbault left New York to continue his circumnavigation, heading first for Bermuda. He arrived in Colón, Panama, on April 1, 1924, and after passing through the Panama Canal he entered and won the tennis championship of Panama. He sailed again on May 31, 1924, and after stopping in the Galapagos islands he arrived in Mangareva, in French Polynesia, after 49 days at sea. He went on to visit the Marquesas Islands, the Tuamotus, and Tahiti. At this time he began writing extensively on the history and society of the Pacific islands, and criticising the colonial exploitation of the natives.

After more refitting, Firecrest set sail again on May 21, 1926, stopping in Bora Bora, Samoa, and the Wallis Islands, where the boat was badly damaged during a gale. Due to Gerbault’s fame by this time, he was able to secure considerable assistance in salvaging and repairing the boat, and on December 9 Gerbault sailed again. He made his way gradually to the Torres Strait, and thence to the Indian Ocean, where he visited the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Mauritius, and Madagascar, arriving at Durban in time for Christmas, 1927.

Gerbault rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed north, stopping in Saint Helena, Ascension, and the Cape Verde islands, where he spent ten months working on another book. On May 6, 1929, he finally sailed for home, stopping at the Azores, and on July 21 he sailed into Cherbourg harbor. He received another hero’s welcome for his circumnavigation, the third single-handed circumnavigation of the world, during which he had spent 700 days at sea and covered more than 40,000 miles.